Two Weeks Later-- Big Difference

You can compare the pictures from a couple of weeks ago and see that the plants have really taken off.  In the foreground you can see the chives, still flowering, and the asperigus frawns.  In the background are, from left to right, French Marigolds, onions, potatos, tomatoes and snow peas.

Here is a ground level view of the same part of the garden.  Believe it or not, we have had some really bad weather and the plants have been beat up a couple of times.  If it wasn't for that, they would look even better.

This is the opposite end of the garden.  You can see the squash in front, the Boston Marrow winter squash in the upper right, and the Draggon beans from the left to top center.  You can see the yellow summer squash is already blooming.  I didn't take a picture, but there are actually little squash the size of your pinky nail already there.

This is the spinach.  I have already taken several cuttings off of them and it has been very good.  You'll notice the large Brussell Sprout plant that was in the pictures a couple of weeks ago is gone.  It went to seed, which was its job, so I pulled it.

 My son wanted to plant peppers again this year.  We really don't have room in the garden, so we put them in pots.  There are two pots, with three plants each.  He grew them from seed.  Should be good.

 This is a close-up of the asperigus frawns.

 This is the flat leaf Italian parsley going to seed.

 These are the chives going to seed.

 These are the radishes going to seed.  They will develop little seed pods.  If you pick them when they are small and imature, they are really sweet and have just a faint radish flavor.  I had never tasted it until a couple of years ago and can't get enough now.  I rarely even eat the radishes themselves any more.  I just eat the seed pods and grow them for that alone.  They are in a shady part of the garden that not much will grow in anyway, so there is really nothing lost.

 This is a potato plant.  Last year was the first year for me to grow potatos and I really liked them.  I saved some of them to plant this year and they have done very well.  They seem to be growing a lot faster and bigger than they did last year.  Maybe it's adaptation.

 This is a yellow summer squash plant.

 This is a tomatio plant.  I've never grown them before, but I've eaten them forever.  Can't wait to see how these turn out.

 One of the tomato plants.  I have seven different varieties this year.  This one is Porter.  It was actually developed not far from here, so it's very well suited to our climate.  Last year it was a real heavy producer.  It is the first to set fruit this year and looks to be doing very well.

This is a blossom forming on one of the potato plants.  Potatos actually cross breed very easily and stabalize far faster than most plants.  For the plantings last year I chose six different red skin potatos.  The meat on each is different, but they all have red skin.  I'm intentionally letting them cross breed so I can adapt a variety for my area.  We'll see how it goes.

 While I was working in the garden a friend was hunting, so I thought I would try to catch him in the act.  Didn't quite work, but he looks pretty cool anyway.

 Here he is blowing out his throat.  I didn't get a great picture of it.  It actually went out a long way and was bright orange.

I think he got tired of me after a while because he changed from the bright green to this muddy brown and looked like he was going to try to jump on me.  I left him alone.  I need him to eat bugs.

Spring 2011-- First Look

 This is last year's Brussel Sprouts going to seed.

 I planted asperigus this year.
  We won't be able to eat it for a couple of years,
 but it looks good in the garden for now.

There are onions on the left,

 potatos (from last years crop) next to them,

 then tomatos, and finaly, sweet peas on the far right.

Looking the opposite direction from the last picture,

 again, onions and potatos on the left, squash in the foreground,

 and beans on the far right.

The chives planted last year are doing very well

 and make a pretty corner of the garden.  There is parsley growing behind the chives.

In the foreground are the pickling cucumbers.

  The large plants at the end are radishes.  I will eat the radishes and the

 little imature seed pods (they are the best).  Under the radishes are carrots and beets.

  The radishes grow very quickly, so as soon as they are harvested, the carrots

 and beets get enough light to grow and I can do it all in the same spot and conserve ground.

This is the French curly leaf spinach.  It is very good.

  The first cutting is almost ready.

I'm trying something new this year-- growing my own mushrooms.

  These are oak cuttings and I drilled a bunch of holes in them and hammered

 plugs that are impregnated with mushroon spores into them.  In a few weeks,

 we should have three different types of mushrooms:

  Shiitake, Pearl Oyster, and Reishi.

This is a better picture of the holes with the plugs in them.